House Members of Progressive ‘Squad’ Grab More than $220 Million of Earmarks Since 2023

Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar standing in front of the US capitol (composite image)

Members of the “Squad” of progressive lawmakers in the House of Representatives, including Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., wrangled more than $220 million worth of earmarks included in spending bills since the start of fiscal year 2023, according to a watchdog group.

“These eight members, up from 6 last year, have put almost $220 million worth of earmarks into the last two years of congressional spending packages, for causes like environmental justice, diversity, and immigration assistance,” read a new report from OpenTheBooks.com.

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DeSantis Calls to Expel Ilhan Omar from Congress over Somalia Video

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday called for the House to expel Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar over a footage of her speaking in Somali in which she allegedly promised to prioritize the interests of Mogadishu and backed the territorial aspirations of the Somali government.

“Expel from Congress, denaturalize and deport!” DeSantis posted on X, resharing the video footage. The original video was posted by the account of the Ambassador at Large of the Republic of Somaliland and included a translation of Omar’s remarks, the interpretation of which Omar has disputed.

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Squad Members Criticize AIPAC for Reportedly Committing to Spend $100 Million to Defeat Them

Progressive House lawmakers in the so-called Squad criticized the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) for reportedly committing to spend $100 million to defeat them.

According to a report from Slate, Democratic Reps. Cori Bush of Missouri, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Jamaal Bowman of New York, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan are all targets of the $100 million AIPAC spending campaign.

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Omar Says There’s ‘No Way in Hell’ She Will Attend Israeli President’s Congressional Address

Rep. Ilhan Omar says there is “no way in hell” that she will attend Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s joint address to Congress and that he should not even be invited to speak.

“There is no way in hell I am attending the joint session address from a President whose country has banned me and denied @RashidaTlaib the ability to see her grandma,” Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, tweeted Wednesday.

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Despite Voting to Ban on Government Devices, Some U.S. Lawmakers Still Using TikTok

Some lawmakers are active on TikTok even after concerns about the social media platform’s surveillance capabilities prompted Congress to ban it on some federal devices in December.

The bipartisan omnibus spending bill passed on Dec. 23 prohibits TikTok on executive branch mobile devices, with limited carveouts for national security, law enforcement and research purposes. However, Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Jamaal Bowman of New York, Cori Bush of Missouri and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan appear to be active on the platform, their accounts show, despite voting yes or “present” for the bill.

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Commentary: Ilhan Omar Heads Down the Road to Islamofascism

I had a junior high social studies teacher who was fond of saying that if it reached its logical conclusion, liberalism would eventually become fascism. He was long dead before Ilhan Omar hit the scene, but he would be gratified to see his prediction in action.

Omar’s Combating International Islamophobia Act passed the House of Representatives on a narrow party line vote recently. If it becomes law, it will mandate a new State Department bureaucracy to report on anti-Islamic activity as a human rights violation. English is Omar’s second language, and the wording of the bill shows it. Its definition of Islamophobia is not precise. An example of the text includes “acts of physical violence against, or harassment of, Muslim people, and acts of violence against, or vandalism of, Muslim community institutions, including schools, mosques, and cemeteries, and instances of propaganda in government and nongovernment media that attempt to justify or promote racial hatred or incite acts of violence against Muslim people.”

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Michigan Rep. Tlaib and Minnesota Rep. Omar Participated with Groups Calling for Release of ‘Lady al-Qaeda’

Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota participated in events with Muslim-American advocacy groups that have called for Aafia Siddiqui’s release from a Texas prison.

The gunman who took hostages inside a Texas synagogue on Tuesday demanded the release of Siddiqui, who has often been referred to in the counterterrorism world as “Lady al-Qaeda.” Siddiqui was convicted in 2010 of attempting to murder U.S. nationals, according to the FBI.

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Ilhan Omar Possibly Committed a Felony by Concealing Her Finances in Required Disclosure Form, Watchdog Group Alleges

Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar possibly committed a felony by failing to properly report her assets and income in her financial disclosure reports to the House of Representatives, a conservative-leaning watchdog group alleged in a complaint filed Tuesday.

The group, National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), demanded the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) investigate why Omar’s financial disclosures make no reference to the income she may have received from her memoir published in May 2020, as well as the Democratic lawmaker’s apparently gross undervaluation of her new husband’s consulting firm, which raked in nearly $3 million from Omar’s political campaign from 2018 through 2020, campaign finance records show.

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Rep. Ilhan Omar Urges Biden to Increase Refugee Admissions Cap

Ilhan Omar

Rep. Ilhan Omar has joined a group of Democrats in urging President Joe Biden to increase the refugee admissions cap to 200,000 for the next fiscal year to meet the “massive humanitarian need” in Afghanistan.

With the Taliban now in control of the country, the U.S. Department of Defense could house as many as 30,000 Afghan refugees at military bases across America, including Fort McCoy in Wisconsin. That figure alone is nearly three times the number of refugees who were admitted to the U.S. last year under President Donald Trump.

President Biden revised the annual refugee admissions cap in May to 62,500 for the 2021 fiscal year, up from the “historically low number” of 15,000 set by the Trump administration. Biden said his goal is to increase that figure again to 125,000 for the next fiscal year.

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Watchdogs Sound Alarm as Ilhan Omar Continues to Evade Financial Disclosure of Reportedly Lucrative Book Deal

Ilhan Omar

Multiple watchdog groups said Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar may have violated federal law for failing to mention any income received from her critically-acclaimed 2020 memoir in her latest financial disclosure report filed on Friday.

Omar reportedly signed a deal worth up to $250,000 for her memoir, “This Is What America Looks Like,” in January 2019, around the same time she was sworn into Congress. Omar’s communications director said the House Ethics committee approved the book deal, but the Democratic lawmaker’s financial disclosures covering the calendar years 2018 and 2019 contain no mention of the book or any advance income received upon signing a deal.

The book was published in May 2020 to rave reviews by the press and Omar’s Democratic colleagues. The Atlantic dubbed it one of the best political books of the year, and numerous high profile Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, praised on the book.

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